Jewelry | colours and materials for coachbuilding

Jewelry | colours and materials for coachbuilding

Badge Design

As our coachbuilt vehicles are made entirely by hand of the best materials, we chose to eliminate plastics to be used for our jewelry. Our badge is handmade in metal, as it looks and feels better and gives a far superior finish in comparison too. The perceived quality is outstanding: the badges feel heavy and the material looks great.

Because of the sharp edges we required, stamping our badges was not a possibility. In that case only a rounded edge could be incorporated, due to the technical restriction of the stamping procedure. Our badge design required a 90 degree top and the 45 degree facetted corner, so they had to be cast in zinc alloy rather than stamped in copper. A special tool was made to injection mold the badge and create the cut-out look we designed.

We decided to go for a black nickel – or black chrome – plating for the metal base of the badge. To give the right tactile and visual quality the logo was recessed into the metal and filled, by hand, with white enamel. The photos show the metal base before any plating or enamel is added. It also clearly shows the recessed areas where the enamel colouring would be added later.

The logos were buffed by hand to remove blemishes or imperfections, ensuring a nice even surface. Following that procedure our badges went for plating. We required a black chrome base finish. In the final stage white enamel colouring was inserted by hand to the recessed areas. After colouring the enamel is left to dry and set overnight.

The black chrome showcases the quality of the base metal material beautifully and – depending on the angle – appear to be either fully black or chromed. The colour also refers to the quality of the coachbuilding process.